WAB at Clumber 2009 - The Final Reckoning!

[FungiJohn]

Pholiota squarrosa at South Lodge



Aleuria aurantia to add a little colour



Two for Posch Gerry to ID



No, this is not Amanita virosa John, this is Collybia maculate … you ….



This could well be



Wooo Hooo Amanita virosa

John

[PMG]

Tried uploading another 5 pics from Clumber late last night and got an internet 'interruption' while doing - with the result that WAB now thinks I'm over my 5 limit again and will have to wait yet another 24 hours to upload .... Grrr technology I really need to walk away from this machine and do something else for a while so if anyone wants to see the rest of the Clumber shots they are on my zenfolio website - just click on link below ..... (I've been home 2 days and not unpacked yet time for jobs instead of fun )

Pauline

[PMG]

Originally Posted by PMG

Tried uploading another 5 pics from Clumber late last night and got an internet 'interruption' while doing - with the result that WAB now thinks I'm over my 5 limit again and will have to wait yet another 24 hours to upload .... Grrr technology I really need to walk away from this machine and do something else for a while so if anyone wants to see the rest of the Clumber shots they are on my zenfolio website - just click on link below ..... (I've been home 2 days and not unpacked yet time for jobs instead of fun )

Pauline

Thank you to Fungi John for posting these (and I still need to walk away from this desk and do some real work!!!) but here are the last of my Clumber shots:


The light was disastrous but the scene was good so I took it in all its flat dull glory and photoshopped a little later .....


Finally - at last - the real McCoy - a good patch of them


Despite my best efforts to 'make' this into something rarer its still a little belter!


Probably the most interesting for me as it was something new that I would never have named without help ........

[Dutchess]

As some here will testify, personally I cannot see the "fun" in fungi, but I must say have greatly enjoyed following your chap's exploits during this foray!

The build up to the meet and the photos and banter afterwards.....extremely entertaining! A few of my personal fav WABbers went too....so it's good to see them in a different setting, so to speak

Thanks guys (and girl!) and I am so pleased for you all that it made for a very enjoyable weekend

Dawn.

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Dutchess

As some here will testify, personally I cannot see the "fun" in fungi, but I must say have greatly enjoyed following your chap's exploits during this foray!

The build up to the meet and the photos and banter afterwards.....extremely entertaining! A few of my personal fav WABbers went too....so it's good to see them in a different setting, so to speak

Thanks guys (and girl!) and I am so pleased for you all that it made for a very enjoyable weekend

Dawn.

Nice to hear from you Dawn I reckon the bunch of us at Clumber could interest even the most un-fun-gi person and if we didn't, then the banter while we do something that is supposedly so serious, would certainly be worth gathering for

Pauline (thanks for 'girl' made me feel quite giddy )

[ManwithNoname]

Originally Posted by pressld2

I'm not very familiar with Clumber Park but it was in a mossy area close to the lakeside and, using the map that John sent beforehand, I would say it was in the Lady Garden area.

There was quite a lot of microscope work done on it on Saturday night which I think is where the marchii came from.

Dave P.

Unfortunately the microscopy was inconclusive because we didn't have a copy of Boertmann's book to hand and we only looked at the spores.

I did some further work on the waxcaps from that area on Monday, by which stage my specimens were fairly putrid. However, the cap cuticle seemed to me to be dry and squamulose, which would rule out both H. coccinea and H. marchii (- technically the cuticle was a dry trichoderm). The gill trama was subregular with relatively short elements.

Keying this out takes you to the part of the key with H. miniata in it, but the spores were the wrong shape, being oblong or broadly ellipsoid rather than triangular. Following the key I arrived at H. calciphila, which has spores of the right shape and size and seems a good possibility... apart from the fact that it is restricted to calcareous soils. So was this a very small and unusual patch of calcareous grassland?

I think the identification needs further work on fresher specimens than I had. But H. coccinea was definitely ruled out by the spore size, and H. marchii seems unlikely because this species should have a greasy to lubricous cap cuticle (the cap cuticle on my specimens showed no sign of being an ixocutis or ixotrichoderm) and it has a higher average Q value for the spores.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by ManwithNoname

Unfortunately the microscopy was inconclusive because we didn't have a copy of Boertmann's book to hand and we only looked at the spores.

I did some further work on the waxcaps from that area on Monday, by which stage my specimens were fairly putrid. However, the cap cuticle seemed to me to be dry and squamulose, which would rule out both H. coccinea and H. marchii (- technically the cuticle was a dry trichoderm). The gill trama was subregular with relatively short elements.

Keying this out takes you to the part of the key with H. miniata in it, but the spores were the wrong shape, being oblong or broadly ellipsoid rather than triangular. Following the key I arrived at H. calciphila, which has spores of the right shape and size and seems a good possibility... apart from the fact that it is restricted to calcareous soils. So was this a very small and unusual patch of calcareous grassland?

I think the identification needs further work on fresher specimens than I had. But H. coccinea was definitely ruled out by the spore size, and H. marchii seems unlikely because this species should have a greasy to lubricous cap cuticle (the cap cuticle on my specimens showed no sign of being an ixocutis or ixotrichoderm) and it has a higher average Q value for the spores.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles with these ... though I struggle with some even when they are in quite good shape . And I'm just off out now to find some more to wrestle with ... (not from Clumber though).

Melanie

Is H calciphila restricted to calcareous soils? Or do we keep ruling it out when it isn't on calcareous soils? I know I'm being devil's advocate here, but often we believe what we are told without questioning it. I found one in Northumberland, the geology was acidic and vegetation typically acidophile, but it seemed to fit H calciphila spot on, and was in good condition too. Unfortunately that one didn't survive the journey home and wasn't preserved, though it got the micro treatment up there, (though that was not saved to computer, as I hadn't taken that with me) .

[pressld2]

Many thanks for this. I've updated the image title to Hygrocybe spp. and put "Possibly H. calciphila" in the details. That'll do unless we manage a positive ID.

Originally Posted by ManwithNoname

So was this a very small and unusual patch of calcareous grassland?

It certainly didn't look like it, more of a rich, peaty loam. I suppose it could have been calcareous underneath though.

Dave P.

[ManwithNoname]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

Is H calciphila restricted to calcareous soils? Or do we keep ruling it out when it isn't on calcareous soils?

A good question. But given that I've never confidently identified it before, I have to rely on the expertise of others, and that's what Boertmann says.

[pressld2]

Here's today's five images...


Hoof fungus - the same one as this:


which was posted by Fungi John way back in December 2006!


Mycena spp.


Penny bun. I have to say that I prefer Ditiola's lovely wide-angle shot!


Striated Earthstar

Dave P.